SmackDown ratings drop a bit for Royal Rumble go-home show

SmackDown’s Royal Rumble go-home show averaged 2.556 million viewers Tuesday night on the USA Network, down four percent from last week.

The show was 10th for the night on cable in terms of total viewers but third in the 18-49 demo with a 0.86 rating, trailing The New Edition Story and Curse of Oak Island.

It’s notable that SmackDown held just 77 percent of the Raw audience from the night before, which is below the usual 80-85 percent level the show is usually at. This could be due to the fact that Monday’s Raw was a somewhat loaded episode with Brock Lesnar and Goldberg both advertised.

The only thing advertised for SmackDown this week was a match between Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Randy Orton, which kicked off the show. The main event of The Miz challenging Dean Ambrose for the Intercontinental Championship was set up in the night’s opening segment.

Tuesday’s total was still above the show’s average since moving from Thursday nights. That number now stands at 2.501 million viewers, which is 85 percent of Raw’s average of 2.956 million in the same time frame.